From a formal Senate hearing to backroom intrigue in the House to political theater starring musician Moby, the issue of network neutrality swirled around Capitol Hill today. As cable industry spokesman Kyle McSlarrow said, "This [net neutrality] is now the number one issue." Proponents of net neutrality want Congress to enact legislation prohibiting broadband providers such as Verizon, AT&T and Comcast from charging content providers based on bandwidth consumption. Without that provision, proponents claim, the Internet will be dominated by a handful of powerful telephone and cable company gatekeepers who will have the ability to decide which sites work best based on who pays the most. ... Watch this little sleeper that’s in our Politicians hands, big money is working to wreck the internet. However, the story will sound so sweet and obviously, the lame excuse most likely will be, "it’s for the public good.” ... http://www.internetnews.com

A US judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by German citizen Khaled al-Masri, who claims he was abducted and tortured at secret CIA prisons. The case, says the judge, could harm America's war on terror. Khaled al-Masri, the German citizen of Lebanese descent who was allegedly kidnapped and tortured in secret CIA prisons, has failed in his attempt to be compensated for the ordeal. A US federal court in Alexandria, Virginia rejected the case he brought against former CIA director George Tenet and other spy agency employees involving kidnapping, torture and mistaken identity. The court argued the case would risk exposing national security secrets that are key to Washington's efforts to battle terrorism. The ruling by US District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III did not consider the validity of the claims made by Khaled al- Masri, who says he was abducted on New Year's Eve 2003 in Macedonia and detained in various secret overseas prisons often referred to as "black sites." ...http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,417071,00.html

Security software maker Symantec is taking legal action against Microsoft, accusing it of misusing its technology. The action, filed in a US federal court in Seattle, alleges that Microsoft improperly used Symantec's data storage techniques in its own software. Symantec wants compensation, saying the alleged infringement amounts to misappropriation of its trade secrets. Microsoft describes the accusation as unfounded and says it has tried unsuccessfully to resolve the issue. The disagreement is based on Symantec's Volume Manager software, which allows operating systems to store and handle large amounts of data. Symantec believes Microsoft has "deliberately and surreptitiously misappropriated" the technology "and thereby convinced the US government to issue patents to Microsoft based on technologies invented by Symantec". ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4996630.stm

A US-British team of scientists has challenged the idea that the tiny skeleton from Indonesia dubbed the "Hobbit" is a new human species. Writing in Science magazine, the team presents an alternative theory that the remains could be those of a modern human with a brain disorder. Their arguments appear in a technical critique of previous research into the Hobbit brain also published in Science. But the authors of that earlier paper have vigorously defended their work. The skeletal remains were discovered by an Australian-Indonesian research team in the cave of Liang Bua on the island of Flores in 2003. After carefully analysing the bones, the group declared them to be those of a human species previously unknown to science, and to which they gave the classification Homo floresiensis. (The specimen is also sometimes referred to as LB1 after the cave in which it was found). ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4994054.stm

The Russian Armed Forces will get a large procurement of new weaponry by the end of this year, a deputy defense minister said Thursday. Colonel General Alexander Belousov said the Armed Forces would receive about 30 main battle tanks, 40 infantry fighting vehicles, more than 100 armored personnel carriers, modernized surface-to-air missiles, more than 10 combat helicopters and a regiment of silo-based Topol-M ballistic missiles. The acquisitions will be made under a major modernization program highlighted in President Vladimir Putin's state of the nation address May 10 and in statements by a number of senior military officials. "The modernization program for 2006 envisions the procurement of about 30 new T-90 tanks and modernization of more than 180 T-72 and T-80 tanks," Belousov said, adding that this meant older tanks would stay in service longer. ...http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060518/48303167.html

Poland's Defence Minister Radek Sikorski has accused Russia of using its energy reserves as a means of blackmailing its western neighbours. In a BBC interview, Mr Sikorski said Poland wanted a commercial relationship with Russian energy suppliers, without monopolies, price-fixing or blackmail. His comments echo concerns raised by US Vice-President Dick Cheney at a recent eastern European regional meeting. Next week, Russia and the EU will have talks at a Black Sea resort. Poland has previously criticised Russia for cutting gas supplies to Ukraine in January in a price dispute, and for signing a deal with Germany to build an undersea gas pipeline bypassing Poland. Mr Sikorski recently compared the deal to the pre-World War II Nazi-Soviet pact which carved up Poland. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4997200.stm